Chelsea hit back at Real president

LONDON – Chelsea on Thursday hit back at claims by Real Madrid president Ramon Calderon that the Blues’ spending power was over-inflating the transfer market for other European clubs.

Calderon also expressed his concern at Chelsea’s huge financial losses since Russian billionaire owner Roman Abramovich arrived. The London-outfit responded by accusing Real of not being completely transparent in their own accounts.”I think it’s a problem – it’s putting the prices very high,” Calderon told BBC Radio Five Live.”He is paying a lot of money for players, but we have to compete with it.In Abramovich’s case, he admitted to having lost 220 million euros last season.For me, it’s very dangerous.”Calderon also questioned the Russian’s commitment to the club.”You don’t know how long those people are going to stay in soccer,” he said.”If somebody decides to leave, it’s going to be a problem.”Chelsea director of communications Simon Greenberg insisted they were more than capable of covering their losses and reiterated Abramovich’s commitment to the club.”I would not doubt Roman Abramovich’s commitment, not just to Chelsea but to football generally,” said Greenberg.”The money that’s been spent has been invested into football – the majority of it.A very small amount of his current investment went on purchasing the club.The rest of it has gone into football and filtered down through football.”Although we made a substantial loss last year, there were a number of one-off payments that won’t be repeated this year – and our auditors, who are one of the leading auditing firms in the world, would never have signed off our accounts (otherwise).We run ourselves as much as we can as a PLC (publicly listed company).”We are completely transparent about our accounts – which is something that cannot be said for many of the top European clubs including, I would say, Real Madrid.”Greenberg also insisted they were not artificially inflating prices in the transfer market.”It’s an open market.People can pay as much as they want to pay,” he said.”We feel sometimes we have to pay a bit more because we are Chelsea.Clubs are not prepared to sell at a particular price because they feel that they can get more from Chelsea and therefore they play one off against another.”Greenberg also claimed that other European clubs sometimes create the false impression Chelsea are interested in one of their players to drive up his price.Nampa-AFPThe London-outfit responded by accusing Real of not being completely transparent in their own accounts.”I think it’s a problem – it’s putting the prices very high,” Calderon told BBC Radio Five Live.”He is paying a lot of money for players, but we have to compete with it.In Abramovich’s case, he admitted to having lost 220 million euros last season.For me, it’s very dangerous.”Calderon also questioned the Russian’s commitment to the club.”You don’t know how long those people are going to stay in soccer,” he said.”If somebody decides to leave, it’s going to be a problem.”Chelsea director of communications Simon Greenberg insisted they were more than capable of covering their losses and reiterated Abramovich’s commitment to the club.”I would not doubt Roman Abramovich’s commitment, not just to Chelsea but to football generally,” said Greenberg.”The money that’s been spent has been invested into football – the majority of it.A very small amount of his current investment went on purchasing the club.The rest of it has gone into football and filtered down through football.”Although we made a substantial loss last year, there were a number of one-off payments that won’t be repeated this year – and our auditors, who are one of the leading auditing firms in the world, would never have signed off our accounts (otherwise).We run ourselves as much as we can as a PLC (publicly listed company).”We are completely transparent about our accounts – which is something that cannot be said for many of the top European clubs including, I would say, Real Madrid.”Greenberg also insisted they were not artificially inflating prices in the transfer market.”It’s an open market.People can pay as much as they want to pay,” he said.”We feel sometimes we have to pay a bit more because we are Chelsea.Clubs are not prepared to sell at a particular price because they feel that they can get more from Chelsea and therefore they play one off against another.”Greenberg also claimed that other European clubs sometimes create the false impression Chelsea are interested in one of their players to drive up his price.Nampa-AFP